Getting back to normal

Today we put our CDs back where they belong.

Where The Little Ninja's toys had taken over the bottom shelves and where we had removed the CDs from the lowest 4 rows or so in an effort to keep them out of TLN's grabby little hands, there reside CDs once again. We need a new place for TLN's toys, of course, but I'm hoping to use this as an excuse to get rid of some of them. The Box - a really nice wooden playpen that is currently getting very little use - is slowly acquiring a horde of stuff we want out of immediate view (like the Duplo box, for example). Ultimately, however, we hope to sell that too. And then we'll just be swimming in the tidal wave of toys displaced by the missing prison-like enclosure of The Box. Cross that bridge when we get to it, though, right?

For now, I'm reveling in the freedom to actually access music by bands that start with S - Z. Bring on The Tea Party, Yellow Monkey, and X Japan!

Leave No Child Inside: Holland edition

I am regularly appalled by the stories I read from North America, where there appears to be an alarming trend of children no longer playing outside, be it for safety, security, comfort or other reasons. So much so that there is an actual term for the negative effect of not connecting with nature: Nature-deficit disorder. And there are social movements to take kids back outside: "Back to Nature", "Leave No Child Inside", etc. I read blogs focusing on getting kids outside and promoting independent outdoor activity. Really, it shocks me that they ever left. Such a huge part of my childhood was spent playing outside, I really can't imagine it any other way. I don't want to. Anyway, my personal concern was that such a trend had spread to Holland, where I live.

But apparently, if it has, there are steps being taken to counter it. Just today, I received an envelope in the mail full of stuff about OERRR. I don't know if the letters actually stand for anything, but it's something like Leave No Child Inside: Holland edition. It's a foundation run by Natuurmonumenten (the Society for preservation of nature monuments in the Netherlands), and its sole purpose is to get kids outside! The envelope contained: a backyard nature poster, a card with activities for kids to do outside (in the current season), and a registration/donation form and return envelope.

Step out the door, welcome to the Wild!

And on the website there's even a chant-like thing (or Call of the Wild, if you will) they've created:

Roughly translated, it goes like this:

I am wild! I wander through the woods

I am happy when I smell the wet forest after rainfall.

I chase after butterfleis, I roll down the sand dunes.

I hear the roar of the surf.

I've gotten scrapes and bruises.

I conquer my fears, trust in others, and learn to persevere.

I swim in lakes and feel the weeds brush my legs

I jump over logs and make fires.

I get out of breath.

And I relax on a bed of moss.

I'm happiest when I'm in the place I know best:

Nature

Soon I'll speak in words,

eat with knife and fork,

I won't run across the grass anymore.

I won't shriek in the backyard.

I'll sit inside. Nicely.

I won't be amazed anymore.

For now I just ask one thing:

Give me the Wild,

for as long as it lasts.

The wild is the source of the nature monuments (and the foundation for their preservation).

I think that's a pretty potent poem, actually.

Aside from the huge waste of paper that makes the environmentalist in me cringe, particularly for all the envelopes going to families with no children, where they will likely land unopened in the recycling bin, I think it's a good movement. While the tree-hugger in me mourns the paper waste, however, I recognise the need to perpetuate the environmentalist movement as well. If the next generation doesn't appreciate Nature, well, then basically we're all doomed, as far as I'm concerned. So the part of me that takes a broader look at things (sees past the paper to the pretty pictures and words on it, if you will), applauds the vision and maybe even excuses the waste. And I registered The Little Ninja right away. I look forward to the free activity cards they'll send him four times a year and the things it'll inspire us to do and discover outside. 

Speaking of stuff to do outside, they have BAREFOOT WALKING TRAILS here. They're all on the other side of the country, but that's only a couple hours' drive away. They sound so cool. And fun. And now that The Little Ninja can walk, we're totally going to go next year. I'll write more about them then. :D 

I see the light

I realized last night that I might actually, (finally,) be starting to enjoy this whole motherhood thing. While some of you might smugly be thinking 'what does she know? Her kid's only 19 months old, just wait until.... (insert horrible upcoming childhood phase)', I see it differently. I see it as the light at the end of a grim, dark tunnel.

The last couple of years have taught me some things about myself:

• I don't enjoy pregnancy
• My body does not naturally know how to give birth
• I don't enjoy taking care of a baby
• I have too little patience to deal with a baby

But that is over now. The Little Ninja isn't a baby anymore! And should we indeed choose never to have another child, that I am done with all that shit forever. (Cheer with me!)

The mind-numbingly frustrating period of crying and guessing and not sleeping, called babyhood, is over, and I see the light of childhood. The Little Ninja walks and talks. He can do stuff. He understands what I say (generally). I understand what he says (50/50, maybe). I can actually teach him stuff now. Stuff that he learns and remembers.

But it's such a huge difference, hanging out and playing with this little boy from carrying around the demanding baby. I actually like it now. It almost makes me want to have another! (Insert ironic laugh/cry.)

Positive

In an effort not to hate Holland quite so much, I've decided to make a list of the things I like about it.

What's great about Holland (IMO):

• Incredible cloudscapes
• Bike lanes, bike paths, bike routes, bike traffic signals and signs, and the bike culture in general.
• Public transport
• Vacation (all 5 mandatory weeks of it)
• Part-time employment
• Maternity care
• Government-subsidised childcare
• Kruidnoten, especially the chocolate-covered variety
• Very, very long days in the summer

 Anything else?